Circus Street so far.

Loooking south from Ivory Place

Morley Street frontage, residential

Entrance to Woodland Court

Woodland Court. Students left & at end; Residential right.

Circus Square looking south-west towards The Dance Space.

Looking north-west into Circus Court. Residential

Student block.

Looking north along Circus St. The Office near right; residential beyond.

Looking north-west from Kingswood Street.
The Office to the left; student block to the right.

The Missing Playground - update

10 years ago council officers won their fight with the developers to ensure a playground was built on the then still vacant plot K of the station site which adjoined Stroudley Road. See "Playground for the New England Quarter". The playground was part of the original planning brief so the developers were presumably well aware of their commitment.

Notwithstanding this,10 years later, the playground has never materialised on plot K and in its place stands City View, 103 Stroudley Road. 

The profit on such a building will of course dwarf the cost of a children's playground and perhaps some compensation payment was mutually agreed or a playground installed somewhere else in the neighbourhood. 

The council's Planning Team has commenced a formal enforcement investigation into this situation and Cr. Nick Childs will be putting a formal question to the Planning Committee.

ADDENDUM 18 April 2021 

A small play area does exist a short walk away from City View on the busy A270. 

It is situated in a small area closely bounded on 3 sides by the walls of tall buildings. 

Court Farm Cottages (2)

Following up an earlier post on Court Farm Cottages, Vale Avenue, Patcham, work has at last to started to develop the adjoining vacant plots. Three 4 bedroom detached house are to be built to the east of the existing cottages and a further semi-detached dwelling tacked on to the west side. The existing cottages are to be restored and reconfigured to meet modern standards including new windows. The westward addition will unfortunately spoil the symmetry of the Edwardian cottages but matching bricks and detailing are proposed throughout the development so the overall effect should be reasonably harmonious. Seven parking spaces are to be provided at the rear.

Proposed front elevations from the south.

Single storey garden rooms to be added to the rear 

Patcham Place preserved

In the evening sunshine which only reaches it at this time of year.

The gate posts & fencing.

The KSD Group took over the lease of Patcham Place in 2012 and deserve every credit for the thoroughness with which they have restored and maintained Patcham Place since.

Following recurrent thefts of lead prior to 2014 estate-style mild steel fencing and handsome gate posts were installed.  Remnants of original wrought-iron fencing are still to be found at the top of Coney Hill.

Patcham Place was built in the 16th.C but the facade was later modified with the black mathematical tiles that can be seen today. It is said to be haunted by one of its owners Anthony Stapley who lived there c1620-1655. He was a leading Puritan and Parliamentarian in the area and one of the 59 MPs who signed Charles I's death warrant.

Previous posts:

Move to dispose of Patcham Place 

Patcham Place Proposals

Patcham Place Stables

Fencing for Patcham Place

Black Rock Gasworks redevelopment

This brownfield site’s use as a gasworks dates back to 1818 and the days when coal was unloaded from colliers on the beach and hauled up through a tunnel cut in the chalk, parts of which are said to still exist. After gas production on site ceased in 1860 the site was used for gas storage and distribution. For much of this span of time activities on the site went unrecorded leading, as far as redevelopment is concerned, to significant uncertainty and risk of unknown underground obstructions and contamination.The site forms part of the council's strategic site for redevelopment DA2 which includes the Marina. 

Now prospective developers St William have launched a public consultation on their landscape-led proposals for the site. St William is a joint venture between National Grid and the Berkeley Group to regenerate redundant gasworks sites across the South of England to deliver new homes and jobs.

EPR Architects are project leaders and landscaping is by Brighton-based Andy Sturgeon Design.

A key feature of the site has been identified as it ability to open up a new green link between the South Downs National Park, the city and the sea.

The site is identified specifically to deliver new homes and employment floorspace, with the potential for ancillary retail. 

Artist's impression.

A feedback form can be found at:- https://brightongasworks.co.uk/feedback/

A Cannon Place Hotel?

Visualisation of the hotel viewed from King's Road

The owners of the Hilton Metropole Hotel (Topland), are seeking the views of local residents on a proposed development of a new 221 room hotel on the northeast corner of the Metropole site.

The site  comprises vacant hotel exhibition space to the rear of the Metropole which is no longer required by Hilton,  and also incorporates 31-32 Cannon Place, on the corner of Cannon Place and St. Margaret’s Place. This Grade II listed building, which currently accommodates a fire escape for the Hotel, is to be retained and fully integrated into the new proposals with the splendidly porticoed entrance reopened to provide a second entrance to the new hotel. The main entrance will be on Cannon Place also giving access to a large reception area opening on to a landscaped courtyard.

The existing blank wall of the Exhibition Hall creates an unwelcoming atmosphere on an important pedestrian route to the seafront from Western Road. The frontage of the new hotel provides a good opportunity to improve on this.  Main concerns are likely to be with the bulk and height of the building and the extent to which this can be ameliorated by sensitive design.

The former Newburgh Assembly Rooms on St. Margaret's Place.

See also: https://www.brighton-society.org.uk/brighton-society-response-to-the-cannon-place-hotel-public-consultation/

To respond to the consultation go to:- https://www.cannonplacehotel-consultation.com/blank-5

For some background see: Extinguished Splendour

Brighton Place - then & now

2nd April 2010

20th April 2019

It is gratifying that the attractive development of Hanningtons Lane has yielded a glimpse of the end wall of Puget's Cottage, the oldest building in the Old Town, and beyond it, the cupola of the Leeds Permanent building in North Street.

See also: Brighton Place

At Patcham Roundabout - then & now

Then. The pumping station, which can be seen beyond the railway line, was built in 1889 so this postcard is dated later than that but before the age of the motor car swept all of this away. Note that the railway bridge is a simple brick arch. On the left can be seen the flint wall of Patcham Place, most of which was demolished when the Patcham by-pass was built in 1926.  See also: Patcham Village - then & now.

2020

Now. With the growth of motor transport came the need to provide the same headroom over the whole width of the road and the brick arch was replaced with beams supported at their ends on the original brickwork which left the width of the roadway unchanged.

The roundabout today doesn't get any prettier

The roundabout was part of Brighton bypass scheme completed in 1995. Before then the A23 crossover from Mill Road to Vale Avenue was controlled by lights.

The Shakespeare's Head - then & now

1 Spring Street

The Shakespeare's Head was built in the 1830s as part of the development of Spring Street which had started in the late 1820s. It was sited on the southern corner of Hampton Street on the back plot to 157 Western Road which later became part of Boots the Chemists. Boots originally occupied 157 to 162 Western Road to the west of Spring Street. The photo shows the Shakespeare's Head in 1935 after most of the north side of Western Road between Hampton Place had been demolished for the Mitre House development. By then Boots had moved to purpose-built premises between Spring Street and Dean Street taking some of the street numbers with them.

The Shakespeare's Head was rebuilt in typical 1930s style retaining the corner entrance to the public bar and flourished for over 3 decades under landlord Sidney Berger. It closed about 10 years ago and two side entrances to other bars were replaced with windows. It now serves as the breakfast room of the Britannia Study Hotel in Mitre House.

In 2020

Today the only remaining hint to its history is in the coloured plaque of Shakespeare's head surmounting  the corner doorway.

See also - Spring Street - then & now
                 More on Spring Street shops

RSCH development, Mar 2017 - Jan 2020.

Upper Russell Street (2)

Before it was cleared in the 1960s, for the building of Churchill Square, Upper Russell Street ran parallel to Western Road from Clarence Square to near the top of Regency Road where it turned sharply north to join Western Road alongside the Lamb & Flag (now Crowns) pub. It could not join up with the west end of Regency Road because it was on a higher level. Instead a rough grassy bank existed between the corner of Upper Russell Street and Regency Road, probably about 10 feet below. 

Upper Russell Street now lies under the Churchill Square 1 car park where it roughly follows the ground floor central east-west feeder lane.

Google Earth view of the area today.

Below are two photos from the RP&M Collections of the northward running section of Upper Russell Street in the 1950s.

The side of the still existing Lamb & Flag can be seen in the distance.

On the right of the photo is the southernmost building of this section of Upper Russell Street which flanked the bank down to Regency Road.

See also:
Upper Russell Street.

Gigins, bakers & confectioners.

Grenville Place.

The Circus Street development

On the Circus Street side the work is still mainly covered in scaffolding but elsewhere something of the completed development can be seen.

Looking north from Carlton Hill

Looking north along what was once Carlton Row

In Morley Street looking west

In Morley Street looking south west.

Withdean developments

An earlier post 'Suburban creep' (4 years ago) lamented the gradual loss of semi-rural Withdean, its 1930s houses, mature gardens, and the 'country lane' look of the roadsides. In 2019 unfortunately there is no sign of relief. The two photos immediately below show 4 completed properties in Withdean Road. Some trees have been replanted and will no doubt eventually soften the view somewhat but nothing will disguise the hard fencing.

Elsewhere, unprotected by conservation area status or any other listings, the demolitions have continued. 

Withdean Avenue

Withdean Road

Withdean Road

The clearances so far, with no doubt most of the mature vegetation, has resulted in a large vacant plot which was the subject of planning application BH2016/06478 for a two-part, 3 storey building comprising 26 residential apartments.

7 Ship Street Gardens, then & now

20 October 2013
See: 7 Ship Street Gardens

Planning Application
See: 7 Ship Street Gardens update

2019